THE MOMENT John Gurche
I start with
bare bones.
It took 60 days for
me to get Sediba up
to final clay. I work
from the deep to the
superficial, basically
doing a dissection in
reverse. I've worked
on this methodology
for 25 years. It
involves as much
science as art.
THE PROCESS

Feat of Clay Reconstructing ancient species begins with taking modern ones apart
for paleoartist John Gurche. He crafted the Australopithecus sediba shown below and---with
digitally added hair---on page 121. "Over the years I've dissected apes as well as humans,
taking some 300 measurements each time." Then he uses the measurements in his work.
"For example, the ratio of eyeball to eye-socket size compares in chimps, bonobos, gorillas,
and humans. Scaling to the body size of the creature, you know how big some other soft-
tissue features should be." Getting the figure's expression right is harder. "I find myself staring
at people," Gurche says. "My wife has told me, 'Stop anatomizing me!' " ---Margaret G. Zackowitz
Day 1 The skull is
modeled from a high-
resolution 3-D scan
from the original
A. sediba skull.
Day 15 Acrylic
eyeballs are added.
Markings on the
bone guide sculpting
of chewing muscles.
Day 40 Sediba likely
used his mouth in
food preparation. His
mouth probably had
strong musculature.
Day 53 Most of the
clay is now applied.
Adding soft tissue
makes a big differ-
ence in expression.
PHOTOS: JOHN GURCHE